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The Evidence Finder tool allows you to search published studies of treatment and prevention strategies for mental health and substance use issues in young people. You can use the filters to refine your search or browse by category.
Disorders - Anorexia Nervosa
Russell, Gerald F., Szmukler, George I., Dare, Christopher, Eisler, I.
Evaluated the use of family therapy (FT) in treating 57 anorexic and 23 bulimic outpatients (mean age 21.8 yrs). Ss were randomly assigned to FT or individual supportive therapy (IST) and a follow-up was conducted at 1 yr. Results indicate that FT was more effective than IST in nonchronic patients who began treatment before age 19 yrs. In older patients, IST led to more weight gain than FT, but this improvement fell short of recovery in most Ss. Duration of hospital stay, use of antidepressant medication, differences in FT frequency, and dropout rates are examined as sources of bias. The effects of FT on members of the family other than the patient are discussed. It is concluded that anorexia's clear-cut symptoms and the availability of reliable outcome measures make it useful for evaluating treatments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved).
Archives of General Psychiatry, 44(12) : 1047-1056
- Year: 1987
- Problem: Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
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Stage: Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
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Treatment and intervention: Psychological Interventions (any)
, Family therapy, Supportive therapy
Halmi, K. A., Eckert, E., LaDu, T. J., Cohen, J.
Patients with anorexia nervosa have concurrent problems of emaciation and depression. Therefore, treatment with medications affecting both weight gain and depression seemed reasonable. Seventy-two anorectic patients were randomly assigned in a double-blind study to receive cyproheptadine hydrochloride, a weight-inducing drug, amitriptyline hydrochloride, a tricyclic antidepressant, or placebo. Overall, cyproheptadine had a marginal effect on decreasing the number of days necessary to achieve a normal weight. There was a differential drug effect present in the bulimic subgroups of the anorectic patients: cyproheptadine significantly increased treatment efficiency for the nonbulimic patients and significantly impaired treatment efficiency for the bulimic patients when compared with the amitriptyline- and placebo-treated groups. The differential cyproheptadine effect on the anorectic bulimic subgroups is the first pharmacologic evidence of the validity of these subgroups. Cyproheptadine had an anti-depressant effect demonstrated by a significant decrease in the Hamilton depression ratings.
Archives of General Psychiatry, 43(2) : 177-81
- Year: 1986
- Problem: Anorexia Nervosa
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
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Stage: Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
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Treatment and intervention: Biological Interventions (any)
, Tricyclic antidepressants, Appetite moderators
Biederman, J., Herzog, D. B., Rivinus, T. M., Harper, G. P., Ferber, R. A., Rosenbaum, J. F., Harmatz, J. S., Tondorf, R., Orsulak, P. J., Schildkraut, J. J.
The tricyclic antidepressant drug amitriptyline was evaluated as a short-term treatment of anorexia nervosa patients. In a 5-week double-blind, placebo-controlled study 11 patients were given amitriptyline and 14 received placebo. In addition, 18 patients who refused to participate in the drug trial and received only psychosocial treatment were used as an additional comparison group. Overall, patients in the three groups showed little improvement. No statistically significant differences favoring amitriptyline were found in any of the outcome variables. Plasma levels varied widely among patients receiving similar doses. No association was found between plasma levels and improvement in either psychiatric symptomatology or weight. Amitriptyline patients did not manifest any tendency for a reduction of depressive symptomatology. In addition, amitriptyline treatment was associated with substantial discomfort and adverse affects.
Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 5(1) : 10-6
- Year: 1985
- Problem: Anorexia Nervosa
- Type: Controlled clinical trials
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Stage: Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
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Treatment and intervention: Biological Interventions (any)
, Tricyclic antidepressants
Gross, H. A., Ebert, M. H., Faden, V. B.
In this 4-week, double-blind, parallel group study, eight young women with primary anorexia nervosa were evaluated on lithium carbonate, and eight patients were treated with placebo and served as a control. All patients participated in a behavior modification treatment program. The lithium-treated and placebo groups were comparable on nearly all findings measured at baseline (t tests), witn no significant differences observed except for calories per day, percent fat composition of the daily calories, 'interpersonal sensitivity' on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-90 (HSCL-90), 'self-care' on the Goldberg Anorectic Attitude Questionnaire, (GAAQ) and 'manipulation of others' on the physician-rated Psychiatric Rating Scale (PRS). The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with the baseline measure as the covariate. Group differences appeared in the areas of 'denial or minimization of illness' on the GAAQ, 'selective appetite' on the PRS, and weight. Although the repeated measures ANCOVA for weight revealed a significant group-by-time interaction, indicating nonparallelism and invalidating the test for group differences, ANCOVAs performed for each individual time point showed greater weight gain in the lithium group at week 3 and 4.
Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology., 1(6) : 376-381
- Year: 1981
- Problem: Anorexia Nervosa
- Type: Randomised controlled trials
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Stage: Disorder established (diagnosed disorder)
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Treatment and intervention: Biological Interventions (any)
, Lithium